Detecting the Best Players: Top Data Room Providers

When it comes to business the borders between countries tend to blur: contracts and transactions are being executed on the cross-national level and the involvement of several international players in one deal is rather a rule than an exception. In such conditions, an uninterrupted flow of communication becomes crucial: the partakers of the project need to stay in touch while the deal is in progress. The easiest, the most efficient and secure way to do it is to open a virtual data room. The latter simplifies sharing data online and allows deal-makers to keep an eye on the project even when they are far away from their partners.

As it is hard to deny the convenience of a data room, more and more companies voice their intentions to open the one. The popularity of virtual data rooms grows and the market expands: every corporation, law firm, small entrepreneur, and even a private client have a chance to find a room that would perfectly suit the financial abilities of the customer and their requirements and expectations. But it might be pretty challenging to select the ideal platform: dozens of vendors might seem to be identical, from the first sight. Our mission is to guide inexperienced users through the world of Indian VDR providers.

India proves to be a rather fertile area for the dissemination of data room services: lots of local companies collaborate with large international corporations and work as outsource supporters for the more developed markets. In such conditions, dataroom seems to be indispensable: they guarantee that Indian businessmen may not fear to share data with their international partners as the rooms are highly protected and eliminate almost all the risks of data leakage and misuse. Moreover, it is more convenient to run any project online than to manage it from time to time via email and via occasional face-to-face meetings.

We realize the importance of VDR exploitation within Indian market but, simultaneously, we understand that the selection of an ideal platform is not the easiest task. Therefore, we would like to suggest our vision of the situation in India when it comes to virtual repositories. In general, all the major vendors are active in the region and the one may choose the most reputable portal. However, the most reputable room is not always the best choice for a precise company. For this reason, we came up with our own virtual data room comparison that is supposed to help local businessmen to find the best repository for data storage and exchange.

To detect the key players in the market we examined numerous top-lists and looked through the reviews of the former and current users of virtual rooms. The feedback from real customers is the most valuable source of information as it helps to understand whether a vendor is capable of keeping the promises given and whether the room is convenient for certain types of projects. We analyzed what kinds of deals were executed via the platforms to grasp a specialty of each vendor: some providers focus exclusively on M&A transactions while the others are ready to assist throughout a wider range of deals. Also, we checked trial versions offered for free by VDR providers: it is hard to assess a platform adequately if you have never seen it in action.

On the basis of information gathered, we managed to come up with our list of the most sophisticated and decent data repositories that can be found in India recently. This selection is expected to simplify the life of those who are looking for a functional environment for deal-making but who have no idea where to start and which aspects to take into account.

The Main Data Room Features and Spheres of Application

From the very beginning of their existence, data rooms were meant to be used for the cooperation between companies involved in merger and acquisition transactions. But pretty soon it turned out that the new type of repositories can be successfully utilized for other purposes as it ensures not only secure file sharing. For sure, from the perspective of the data protection, VDRs prove to be almost excellent: all the documents uploaded to the room are encrypted; each file contains a dynamic watermark; firewalls and regular virus scanning helps to reduce the risk of malware attack. In general, it means that the documents stored inside the room are exposed to the minimum of potential dangers.

Anyway, security is not the only advantage of the best data rooms. To underline the beneficial traits of such platforms the following functions should be mentioned:

Permission groups

The right to ascribe certain rights to certain visitors of the room helps its administrators to manage the flow of users and to keep an eye on their actions. It is doubtful that you would be willing to disclose all your files to all your partners, employees, investors, etc. – it is better to divide them into groups and to share only the relevant information.

Audit reports

Even if the room is being exploited only for internal purposes such as management of cooperation between several teams, it is important to monitor the actions of employees. In analog world it would be rather challenging to check each person, to make a list of files viewed, copied, printed, etc. But for a virtual service it is not a trouble: due to activity tracking tool, the room administrator receives an in-depth log of all the actions that took place inside the repository within the certain period of time. It allows the owners of the room to control the visitors and to make sure that they do not violate any rules or security restrictions.

Q&A section

It is usual for deal-makers to maintain a dialogue via email or via instant messengers when it is inconvenient to agree on a face-to-face meeting. But these means of communication prove to be rather insecure: hackers may easily break into the system and steal the data shared via email. That is why Q&A module inherent to cloud-based repositories is an excellent solution for interaction. Being a part of the room, it is protected on multiple levels. Moreover, it allows the participants of the deal to maintain uninterrupted discussion directly within the room.

The features mentioned explain why virtual data room providers have no troubles attracting new clients: the ambitious and wise deal-makers follow the latest technological trends and do not feel like lagging behind their competitors. Even though virtual repositories were designed for M&A – due diligence mainly – the industries that exploit data rooms are unlimited today. You may be a representative of an investment bank or a law firm, you may be involved in clinical studies, you may be focused on fundraising or you may be working for a government – the possibilities of Virtual Data Rooms make them suitable for any sphere that requires data protection and remote collaboration with partners and stakeholders. Hence, it does not matter what kind of business you have: if you feel the need for electronic data room then you should start looking for an ideal platform that would make your deals run smooth.